Real Estate and Forex and Life, Oh My!

Apparently I don’t know what it means to be a consistent blogger. Anyways there are a few things to be updated in my life.

1. Real Estate Investing

Since last November I have been interested in investing in real estate. I purchased a very expensive training program and have learned mountains about different strategies such as fix n flips, rentals, wholesaling etc. While this training course has opened my eyes to many things, it hasn’t given me any real life experience. Then in June of this year I got connected with a company called Midwest Equity Partner. My job is to follow up on leads of people who want to sell their homes in the Milwaukee area. Most of these are off-market properties. These people either see our bandit signs, or receive direct marketing from us. Or word of mouth. In any case I call these leads and setup a time to go inspect the properties. I take videos of the properties and then put together a rehab estimate. The acquisitions manager will then give me a number that I can offer to the seller. From there I make the offer and either they accept or they don’t. Usually they don’t. =) But that’s all good, not everyone is going to accept our offers which are usually well below retail value simply because these houses are usually distressed. The sellers don’t typically realize this fact.

2. Forex Trading

Many people think only of the stock market when the idea of trading is brought up. Little known fact is that the foreign exchange market, of forex, is actually an even bigger market. $5 trillion, yes, with a “t”, are traded daily in the forex market. That is an awful lot of liquidity which provides unparalleled trading opportunities. The stock market is prone to the big players effectively setting the price when a large volume of stock changes hands. In the forex market this isn’t possible because of the huge volume. Even the largest banks can’t move the market all by themselves. All this to say that the forex market is more stable. Over the last 2 years I have been attempting to make money but have failed. Thankfully I haven’t lost money, which if you think about it is a pretty great feat for a novice trader! I do have aspirations however of being a professional trader so I am not happy with simply breaking even. If you are interested in learning more about what I’m doing in the forex market, please head on over to my site all about that. Consciously Incompetent. I hope not to be incompetent for much longer. The real goal is unconsciously competent. =)

So yeah, between real estate investing and trading in the forex market I have a few things going on in my life. I am not in a position to move on from working at Lifetouch, so that still fills my life from Wednesday – Saturday, but who knows what may happen in the future. I am attempting to keep my mind active and constantly learn new things and so I’ve picked up my Kindle and reading books is going to become a new addition to what I do during down time. Right now I’m reading The Hour Between Dog and Wolf, which is about how our brains and body work together to deal with risk, specifically in relation to trading.

Posted on October 25, 2015 in Cruise Life Leave a comment

I’ve Been Everywhere Man

Well I have now come to the end of my career on cruise ships. I thought it’d be nice to provide a little list of all the places I’ve been in the last 3 years. Most of the names are of cities, do you recognize which country they go to? It’s 143 ports in 60 countries.

Acapulco
Akaroa
Alesund
Almeria
Amsterdam
Apia
Arrecife
Aruba
Auckland
Avatoru
Bangkok
Barcelona
Bay of Islands
Belize
Bergen
Berlin
Bermuda
Bonaire
Bora Bora
Burnie
Busan
Cabo San Lucas
Cadiz
Cagliari
Cartagena, Columbia
Cartagena, Spain
Casablanca
Catania
Cherbourg
Civitavecchia
Copenhagen
Corinto
Costa Maya
Cozumel
Curacao
Dover
Dravuni
Dubrovnik
Dunedin
Easo, Lifou
Eidfjord
Flam
Freeport
Geiranger
Gibraltar
Grand Cayman
Grand Turk
Haines
Half Moon Cay
Helsinki
Hilo
Hong Kong
Honningsvag
Honolulu
Huatulco
Ibiza
Juneau
Katakolon
Kerkira
Ketchikan
Key West
Kobe
Kodiak
Koh Samui
Kona
Kotor
Kristiansand
Kuto Ile des Pins
Lahaina, Maui
Las Palmas
Lautoka
Lisbon
Livorno
Los Angeles
Madeira
Mahogany Bay
Malaga
Manzanillo
Melbourne
Molde
Monte Carlo
Montego Bay
Moorea
Nagasaki
Napier
Naples
Nassau
New Plymouth
Nha Trang
Noumea
Oban Halfmoon Bay
Ocho Rios
Oslo
Pago Pago
Palermo
Palma de Mallorca
Panama City
Papeete
Petropavlovsk
Picton
Pisa
Port Vila
Portimao
Puerto Caldera
Puerto Chiapas
Puerto Quetzal
Puerto Vallarta
Raiatea
Rome
Rotterdam
Saint Petersburg
San Diego
Santa Margherita Ligure
Seward
Shanghai
Sihanoukville
Singapore
Sitka
Skagway
St Malo
Stavanger
Stockholm
Suva Viti Levu
Sydney
Taiohae, Nuku Hiva
Tallinn
Tampa
Tangier
Tauranga
Tenerife
Trapani
Ulvik
Valencia
Valletta, Malta
Vancouver
Victoria
Vigo
Vik I Sogn
Visby
Vladivostok
Warnemunde
Wellington
Zeebrugge

Posted on October 4, 2013 in Cruise Life 4 Comments

Next Contract – Panama Canal and Alaska

With also a few other places thrown in such as Tahiti, Bora Bora, Hawaii and Christmas Island!! If you’re interested please see below my itinerary for this next contract on the ms Statendam. I’ll be joining it during dry dock in the Bahamas. It’ll give me a few days to get used to the new ship and get everything sorted before any guests get on the ship for the first cruise.

1/14/13	Mon	Freeport, Bahamas
1/15/13	Tue	Freeport, Bahamas
1/16/13	Wed	Freeport, Bahamas
1/17/13	Thu	Freeport, Bahamas
1/18/13	Fri	FORT LAUDERDALE, FLORIDA
1/19/13	Sat	At Sea
1/20/13	Sun	At Sea
1/21/13	Mon	Oranjestad, Aruba
1/22/13	Tue	At Sea
1/23/13	Wed	Transit the Panama Canal
1/24/13	Thu	Scenic cruising Golfo Dulce
1/25/13	Fri	Puerto Caldera (Puntarenas)
1/26/13	Sat	At Sea
1/27/13	Sun	Huatulco, Mexico
1/28/13	Mon	Acapulco, Guerrero
1/29/13	Tue	At Sea
1/30/13	Wed	Cabo San Lucas, Mexico
1/31/13	Thu	At Sea
2/1/13	Fri	SAN DIEGO, CALIFORNIA
2/2/13	Sat	At Sea
2/3/13	Sun	At Sea
2/4/13	Mon	At Sea
2/5/13	Tue	At Sea
2/6/13	Wed	Lahaina, Maui
2/7/13	Thu	Honolulu, Oahu
2/8/13	Fri	Honolulu, Oahu
2/9/13	Sat	Hilo, Hawaii
2/10/13	Sun	At Sea
2/12/13	Tue	Cross International Dateline
2/13/13	Wed	Kiritimati (Christmas Island)
2/14/13	Thu	At Sea
2/15/13	Fri	Bora Bora, French Polynesia
2/16/13	Sat	Bora Bora, French Polynesia
2/17/13	Sun	Raiatea, Society Islands
2/18/13	Mon	Papeete, Tahiti, French Polynesia
2/19/13	Tue	Papeete, Tahiti, French Polynesia
2/20/13	Wed	Avatoru, Rangiroa
2/21/13	Thu	At Sea
2/22/13	Fri	Taiohae, Nuku Hiva
2/23/13	Sat	At Sea
2/24/13	Sun	Crossing the Equator
2/25/13	Mon	At Sea
2/26/13	Tue	At Sea
2/27/13	Wed	At Sea
2/28/13	Thu	At Sea
3/1/13	Fri	SAN DIEGO, CALIFORNIA
3/2/13	Sat	At Sea
3/3/13	Sun	At Sea
3/4/13	Mon	Puerto Vallarta, Mexico
3/5/13	Tue	At Sea
3/6/13	Wed	Huatulco, Mexico
3/7/13	Thu	Puerto Chiapas, Mexico
3/8/13	Fri	Puerto Quetzal, Guatemala
3/9/13	Sat	At Sea
3/10/13	Sun	Fuerte Amador, Panama
3/11/13	Mon	Fuerte Amador, Panama
3/12/13	Tue	Cartagena, Colombia
3/13/13	Wed	At Sea
3/14/13	Thu	At Sea
3/15/13	Fri	FORT LAUDERDALE, FLORIDA
3/16/13	Sat	At Sea
3/17/13	Sun	At Sea
3/18/13	Mon	Oranjestad, Aruba
3/19/13	Tue	At Sea
3/20/13	Wed	Transit the Panama Canal
3/21/13	Thu	Scenic cruising Golfo Dulce
3/22/13	Fri	Puerto Caldera (Puntarenas)
3/23/13	Sat	At Sea
3/24/13	Sun	Huatulco, Mexico
3/25/13	Mon	Acapulco, Guerrero
3/26/13	Tue	At Sea
3/27/13	Wed	Cabo San Lucas, Mexico
3/28/13	Thu	At Sea
3/29/13	Fri	SAN DIEGO, CALIFORNIA
3/30/13	Sat	At Sea
3/31/13	Sun	At Sea
4/1/13	Mon	Puerto Vallarta, Mexico
4/2/13	Tue	At Sea
4/3/13	Wed	Huatulco, Mexico
4/4/13	Thu	Puerto Chiapas, Mexico
4/5/13	Fri	Puerto Quetzal, Guatemala
4/6/13	Sat	At Sea
4/7/13	Sun	Fuerte Amador, Panama
4/8/13	Mon	Fuerte Amador, Panama
4/9/13	Tue	Cartagena, Colombia
4/10/13	Wed	At Sea
4/11/13	Thu	At Sea
4/12/13	Fri	FORT LAUDERDALE, FLORIDA
4/13/13	Sat	At Sea
4/14/13	Sun	At Sea
4/15/13	Mon	Kralendijk, Bonaire
4/16/13	Tue	Willemstad, Curaçao
4/17/13	Wed	Oranjestad, Aruba
4/18/13	Thu	At Sea
4/19/13	Fri	Transit the Panama Canal
4/20/13	Sat	At Sea
4/21/13	Sun	Puerto Caldera (Puntarenas)
4/22/13	Mon	Corinto, Nicaragua
4/23/13	Tue	Puerto Quetzal, Guatemala
4/24/13	Wed	Puerto Chiapas, Mexico
4/25/13	Thu	Huatulco, Mexico
4/26/13	Fri	At Sea
4/27/13	Sat	Manzanillo, Mexico
4/28/13	Sun	Puerto Vallarta, Mexico
4/29/13	Mon	At Sea
4/30/13	Tue	At Sea
5/1/13	Wed	San Diego, California
5/2/13	Thu	At Sea
5/3/13	Fri	At Sea
5/4/13	Sat	Victoria, British Columbia
5/5/13	Sun	VANCOUVER, CANADA
5/6/13	Mon	Cruising the Inside Passage
5/7/13	Tue	Juneau, Alaska
5/8/13	Wed	Skagway, Alaska
5/9/13	Thu	Glacier Bay Scenic Cruising
5/10/13	Fri	Ketchikan, Alaska
5/11/13	Sat	Cruising the Inside Passage
5/12/13	Sun	VANCOUVER, CANADA
5/13/13	Mon	Cruising the Inside Passage
5/14/13	Tue	Juneau, Alaska
5/15/13	Wed	Skagway, Alaska
5/16/13	Thu	Glacier Bay Scenic Cruising
5/17/13	Fri	Ketchikan, Alaska
5/18/13	Sat	Cruising the Inside Passage
5/19/13	Sun	VANCOUVER, CANADA
5/20/13	Mon	Cruising the Inside Passage
5/21/13	Tue	Ketchikan, Alaska
5/22/13	Wed	Juneau, Alaska
5/23/13	Thu	Skagway, Alaska
5/24/13	Fri	Glacier Bay Scenic Cruising
5/25/13	Sat	At Sea (Gulf of Alaska)
5/26/13	Sun	SEWARD (ANCHORAGE), ALASKA
5/27/13	Mon	At Sea (Gulf of Alaska)
5/28/13	Tue	Glacier Bay Scenic Cruising
5/29/13	Wed	Haines, Alaska
5/30/13	Thu	Juneau, Alaska
5/31/13	Fri	Ketchikan, Alaska
6/1/13	Sat	Cruising the Inside Passage
6/2/13	Sun	VANCOUVER, CANADA
6/3/13	Mon	Cruising the Inside Passage
6/4/13	Tue	Ketchikan, Alaska
6/5/13	Wed	Juneau, Alaska
6/6/13	Thu	Skagway, Alaska
6/7/13	Fri	Glacier Bay Scenic Cruising
6/8/13	Sat	At Sea (Gulf of Alaska)
6/9/13	Sun	SEWARD (ANCHORAGE), ALASKA
6/10/13	Mon	At Sea (Gulf of Alaska)
6/11/13	Tue	Glacier Bay Scenic Cruising
6/12/13	Wed	Haines, Alaska
6/13/13	Thu	Juneau, Alaska
6/14/13	Fri	Ketchikan, Alaska
6/15/13	Sat	Cruising the Inside Passage
6/16/13	Sun	VANCOUVER, CANADA
6/17/13	Mon	Cruising the Inside Passage
6/18/13	Tue	Ketchikan, Alaska
6/19/13	Wed	Juneau, Alaska
6/20/13	Thu	Skagway, Alaska
6/21/13	Fri	Glacier Bay Scenic Cruising
6/22/13	Sat	At Sea (Gulf of Alaska)
6/23/13	Sun	SEWARD (ANCHORAGE), ALASKA
6/24/13	Mon	At Sea (Gulf of Alaska)
6/25/13	Tue	Glacier Bay Scenic Cruising
6/26/13	Wed	Haines, Alaska
6/27/13	Thu	Juneau, Alaska
6/28/13	Fri	Ketchikan, Alaska
6/29/13	Sat	Cruising the Inside Passage
6/30/13	Sun	VANCOUVER, CANADA
7/1/13	Mon	Cruising the Inside Passage
7/2/13	Tue	Ketchikan, Alaska
7/3/13	Wed	Juneau, Alaska
7/4/13	Thu	Skagway, Alaska
7/5/13	Fri	Glacier Bay Scenic Cruising
7/6/13	Sat	At Sea (Gulf of Alaska)
7/7/13	Sun	SEWARD (ANCHORAGE), ALASKA
7/8/13	Mon	At Sea (Gulf of Alaska)
7/9/13	Tue	Glacier Bay Scenic Cruising
7/10/13	Wed	Haines, Alaska
7/11/13	Thu	Juneau, Alaska
7/12/13	Fri	Ketchikan, Alaska
7/13/13	Sat	Cruising the Inside Passage
7/14/13	Sun	VANCOUVER, CANADA
7/15/13	Mon	Cruising the Inside Passage
7/16/13	Tue	Ketchikan, Alaska
7/17/13	Wed	Juneau, Alaska
7/18/13	Thu	Skagway, Alaska
7/19/13	Fri	Glacier Bay Scenic Cruising
7/20/13	Sat	At Sea (Gulf of Alaska)
7/21/13	Sun	SEWARD (ANCHORAGE), ALASKA
7/22/13	Mon	At Sea (Gulf of Alaska)
7/23/13	Tue	Glacier Bay Scenic Cruising
7/24/13	Wed	Haines, Alaska
7/25/13	Thu	Juneau, Alaska
7/26/13	Fri	Ketchikan, Alaska
7/27/13	Sat	Cruising the Inside Passage
7/28/13	Sun	VANCOUVER, CANADA
7/29/13	Mon	Cruising the Inside Passage
7/30/13	Tue	Ketchikan, Alaska
7/31/13	Wed	Juneau, Alaska
8/1/13	Thu	Skagway, Alaska
8/2/13	Fri	Glacier Bay Scenic Cruising
8/3/13	Sat	At Sea (Gulf of Alaska)
8/4/13	Sun	SEWARD (ANCHORAGE), ALASKA
8/5/13	Mon	At Sea (Gulf of Alaska)
8/6/13	Tue	Glacier Bay Scenic Cruising
8/7/13	Wed	Haines, Alaska
8/8/13	Thu	Juneau, Alaska
8/9/13	Fri	Ketchikan, Alaska
8/10/13	Sat	Cruising the Inside Passage
8/11/13	Sun	VANCOUVER, CANADA
8/12/13	Mon	Cruising the Inside Passage
8/13/13	Tue	Ketchikan, Alaska
8/14/13	Wed	Juneau, Alaska
8/15/13	Thu	Skagway, Alaska
8/16/13	Fri	Glacier Bay Scenic Cruising
8/17/13	Sat	At Sea (Gulf of Alaska)
8/18/13	Sun	SEWARD (ANCHORAGE), ALASKA
8/19/13	Mon	At Sea (Gulf of Alaska)
8/20/13	Tue	Glacier Bay Scenic Cruising
8/21/13	Wed	Haines, Alaska
8/22/13	Thu	Juneau, Alaska
8/23/13	Fri	Ketchikan, Alaska
8/24/13	Sat	Cruising the Inside Passage
8/25/13	Sun	VANCOUVER, CANADA
8/26/13	Mon	Cruising the Inside Passage
8/27/13	Tue	Ketchikan, Alaska
8/28/13	Wed	Juneau, Alaska
8/29/13	Thu	Skagway, Alaska
8/30/13	Fri	Glacier Bay Scenic Cruising
8/31/13	Sat	At Sea (Gulf of Alaska)
9/1/13	Sun	SEWARD (ANCHORAGE), ALASKA
9/2/13	Mon	At Sea (Gulf of Alaska)
9/3/13	Tue	Glacier Bay Scenic Cruising
9/4/13	Wed	Haines, Alaska
9/5/13	Thu	Juneau, Alaska
9/6/13	Fri	Ketchikan, Alaska
9/7/13	Sat	Cruising the Inside Passage
9/8/13	Sun	VANCOUVER, CANADA
9/9/13	Mon	Cruising the Inside Passage
9/10/13	Tue	Ketchikan, Alaska
9/11/13	Wed	Juneau, Alaska
9/12/13	Thu	Skagway, Alaska
9/13/13	Fri	Glacier Bay Scenic Cruising
9/14/13	Sat	At Sea (Gulf of Alaska)
9/15/13	Sun	SEWARD (ANCHORAGE), ALASKA
9/16/13	Mon	At Sea (Gulf of Alaska)
9/17/13	Tue	Glacier Bay Scenic Cruising
9/18/13	Wed	Haines, Alaska
9/19/13	Thu	Juneau, Alaska
9/20/13	Fri	Ketchikan, Alaska
9/21/13	Sat	Cruising the Inside Passage
9/22/13	Sun	VANCOUVER, CANADA
9/23/13	Mon	Cruising the Inside Passage
9/24/13	Tue	Juneau, Alaska
9/25/13	Wed	Skagway, Alaska
9/26/13	Thu	Glacier Bay Scenic Cruising
9/27/13	Fri	Ketchikan, Alaska
9/28/13	Sat	Cruising the Inside Passage
9/29/13	Sun	VANCOUVER, CANADA

Posted on January 4, 2013 in Cruise Life 3 Comments

Back in the USA

Well it’s been a very long time since I’ve been back in the US for any proper amount of time. After leaving Alaska on the Volendam last year, which I’m not sure if it even counts as being in the States, I have been to Australia and New Zealand and Europe for pretty much all my time. I did do two cruises out of Tampa but that was just so short of time. It’s nice to be able to relax during a vacation and enjoy myself.

I do have some more photos to post of Europe which I will try and get done in the next week. My next contract is going to be on the Statendam. I’ll be cruising through the Panama Canal back and forth between Ft. Lauderdale and Sand Diego. That will be from mid January to the beginning of May. I’ll have make a cruise out to French Polynesia and Hawaii. Then in May it’ll be back up to Alaska. I’ll be in Alaska until the end of the season in September. Then we’ll see what happens after that but I can only take one contract at a time.

I’ve been doing a lot of research on investing money, and I’m just about to start trading stocks and options. I had been investing money with a group Edward Jones, but over two years I actually lost about $200 bucks so I didn’t feel that was worth it. Trading stocks and options is significantly higher risk than simply investing money, but I’ve prepared a lot and will be following someone else’s advise who has been trading professionally for about 18 years. We’ll see how that goes.

I had the great pleasure of having Niamh and her sister Kate come visit me in the States for a few weeks. Niamh left our last contract together a little early because she needed to go home for a friend’s wedding. That was back at the end of September, and then when I finished my contract in November she came here to visit me. We had a great time. It was really nice to be able to show her around the Midwest as she was able to show me around London last year.

Posted on December 12, 2012 in Cruise Life 1 Comment

I am Alive!!

It’s been a long time since I’ve written, but I promise I am still alive. Currently I’m in Cagliari, Sardinia, Italy. It’s an island somewhere in the Med. Life is good but I’m so ready for my contract to be over. I have this cruise, and then 2 more cruises, and then the crossing cruise back to Ft. Lauderdale. So I’ll be taking a flight up to Wisconsin on November 10. I’ll have just over 2 months vacation and then back to the Volendam where I will join it in Hong Kong. I’ll be there in Asia for about 3 months and then in Alaska for 5 months. So that’s the lowdown on the next year of my life. Not sure what’s in store after that, but yeah, we’ll see. I think planning one year at a time is good enough. That’s all I’ve ever known anyways throughout my life!

I have a lot of photos to upload, but right now I am sitting on a curb with some free wifi and it’s not really comfortable, so I’ll upload photos later. I’ll be in Naples in a few days where I’ll be able to sit in a terminal, so expect some photos to be uploaded on September 30th. Ok..now I have a deadline so it should happen! Of course if pirates come scare the captain away from Naples then I have an excuse. 😉

Alright, well that’s about all for now.

Posted on September 26, 2012 in Cruise Life 4 Comments

Norway and Baltic and Med Oh My!

Well I’ve been incredibly busy and the internet has been awful, but I’ve finally had the chance to upload photos to my site. You can head on over to the photo gallery and see photos that I’ve taken since being in Europe. These are from the above mentioned places. I haven’t had the chance to name the photos yet descriptively, but you can use your imagination on each of them. 🙂

I have had the good fortune to have my mother on a cruise with me last week and now I’ve got my dad here with me. It’s really nice to see parents especially when I haven’t seen them in an entire year. We’ve been going on a lot of shore excursions together which has been super nice. Today we went to the top of a mountain in Alesund, Norway and got a great view of the city and surroundings. There will be a photo of that uploaded later but it hasn’t gotten to the editing stage yet.

Tonight it’s the Pinnacle Grill with Niamh and my dad, so I’m getting excited about some great food.

Peace!

Posted on July 3, 2012 in Cruise Life Leave a comment

Europe – The New Frontier

I am about to start exploring Europe, and it’s going to be an amazing whirlwind tour with a splattering of many countries. I was fortunate enough to be able to visit England and Ireland while I was on my vacation with Niamh and her family, but it’s going to be even more amazing all the places I’m about to go. Here’s a list of what’s on the menu:

France
Belgium
The Netherlands
England
Portugal
Canary Islands
Morocco
Spain
Norway
Denmark
Germany
Estonia
Russia
Finland
Sweden
Gibraltar
Italy
Monaco
Greece
Corfu
Croatia
Sicily
Tunisia
Malta

The best thing about this is that I’m going to get to go to quite a few different cities in each of these countries as my ship stops in these places more than once. I will be particularly familiar with Norway. I’m also going to get a few overnights including Stockholm Sweden, St. Petersburg Russia, Maderia Portugal, Tenerife Canary Islands, Honningsvag Norway, and Barcelona Italy.

Personally I am most excited about St. Petersburg and Barcelona. Also very high on my excitedness list is both Casablanca and Tangier in Morocco. In about 2 weeks from now I will have been to 6 of the 7 continents. Antarctica will have to wait for some other time. Holland America has had a ship go to Antarctica a lot in the past, however I think this year was the last year for this for whatever reason. I guess I’ll have to go there on my own one day.

Two places that I won’t get to go to on this contract are Venice and Istanbul – both places that I really want to visit some day. I’m not complaining too much though, I have SO many really awesome places I’m about to see.

The photo team here on the Ryndam is very good. There’s me, Niamh, Saskia, Becky and Zhou Ye. Saskia is Indian ancestry, but she was born and adopted in The Netherlands, so she speaks only English and Dutch. Becky and Niamh are British, and Zhou Ye is Chinese. She’s from a city near Changchun, so it’s really cool for me to have someone else to speak Chinese to on the ship, and this someone is even in my department. Zhou Ye is our videographer, Becky is our Black Label artist and Saskia is a photographer. Becky is leaving for vacation in a few days and will be gone for about 5 weeks, after which she is coming back here. In the meantime, our Black Label artist is going to be Joanne, who happens to be my Operations Manager with Ocean Images. This means that I’m going to be working with my boss for 5 weeks. It’s going to be very interesting to say the least. I’m sure I will learn a lot in this time.

I spent the first couple weeks on the ship getting back into the swing of things, and readjusting back to the Ryndam after nearly 10 months on the Volendam. I am feeling very good right now. I’ve had a few quiet days the last week because we’re in the middle of the Atlantic right now and there’s not much to do on the ship because the guests are all mariners. This means they’ve sailed many times in the past and aren’t too concerned with taking photos. So we don’t have a lot to do which gives me a chance to make preparations for the European season.

Posted on April 9, 2012 in Cruise Life, Europe 2012 4 Comments

Stonehenge, Windsor Castle and Oxford Oh My!

Two days ago Niamh and I took an all day tour to visit Stonehenge, Windsor Castle and Oxford. It was a fantastic trip and we both enjoyed ourselves immensely. The sky wasn’t blue but at least it wasn’t raining, so we were pretty pleased even with the weather.

There’s only so many days in 6 weeks, and sadly we only have 2 weeks left of this vacation. Tomorrow we’re off to a place called Centre Parks with a few of Niamh’s friends. We’re gonna spend 4 days there in a cabin and just hangout, play games and have fun. We’ve rented bikes so I guess we’ll be able to ride through the forest around there. Sounds like it’ll be great fun. But then after we return to London we’ll have about 4 days before we head to Ireland again. We’ll be there for about 3 days and then it’s back to London. At that point we’ll only have another 5 days or so before it’s back to ship life. The Ryndam is calling.

I’ve updated the photo gallery with some more pictures that I took recently. You can see here the proof of Niamh and I at Stonehenge though. It’s amazing how many awesome places I’ve been recently. If nothing else, working on a cruise ship is at least good for that!

Posted on March 1, 2012 in Cruise Life 3 Comments

Take It Easy!!

Well vacation so far has been absolute bliss. We’ve actually been kinda busy until recently traveling to Ireland and keeping ourselves busy in London, but it’s been positively delightful. I’ve been able to lounge around not doing a whole lot, and it’s totally fine. I could definitely get used to not working.

Niamh and I took a 6 day trip to Ireland to visit her many family members over there. Most of her mom’s side of the family lives in Ireland so there were plenty of people to meet. We also toured around the city (Dublin) and had a grand time. We went to Newgrange, an extremely old Stone Age Passage Tomb. It’s actually older than the Pyramids. We also made a stop in Kilmainham Gaol, an old prison in Dublin. They wanted to keep Niamh there but I was able to bribe them into letting her go. (joke). It’s actually not an operating prison now, it’s just a museum. Very interesting tour.

Now we’re back in London and we have nothing to do for the next 10 days or so. It’s nice to just sit around and not do much unless the desire strikes us for something. Actually, last night was a big party to welcome home Niamh from her contract on the ship. It was a lot of fun to meet many of her friends that I hadn’t met yet. I went bowling with her brothers and sister the day before when she was busy with some other friends.

We had wanted to go to Scotland during this vacation but the time is running down a little bit. We have a few other things planned that may require a trip up north to be postponed to another vacation. We’re still gonna try and fit it in but no promises at this point.

As you might have noticed I have done a major overhaul of this website. The wonders of free time! So this site is no longer going to be focused solely on my travels. I’m branching out and focusing the site on other types of photography. I’ll be writing articles on different aspects of running and creating photography businesses. I feel like I’ve had a lot of experience with both photography itself as well as the business side, seeing as I’m a photo manager working on cruise ships. That said, I will definitely still write posts on what I’ve been up to in my manic traveling around the world. The photo gallery itself is also new and upgraded so all my photos are still here and I’ll continue posting photos. So no fear! This is merely an addition to the site not a drastic change.

Well that’s about all for now. Please check out this space as I’m planning to continue to update the site more often and hopefully keep up to date a little better during my next contract back on the Ryndam.

Posted on February 19, 2012 in Cruise Life 1 Comment

Longest Flight Ever

Well I have finally finished my contract on the Volendam. What started as an 8 month contract ended as a 9 1/2 month contract. I enjoyed almost all of it and really got to see a lot of great things. Asia, Alaska, South Pacific, Australia and New Zealand ain’t bad for one contract, and now I’m in London. There are new photos in my photo gallery of New Zealand.

For my vacation I’m chilling out at Niamh’s house. We took a 9 hour flight from Sydney to Hong Kong and then a 13 hour flight from Hong Kong to London. I think that’s farther than I’ve ever flown, including going from China to the States. Needless to say I’m battling jet lag just a bit.

Our initial plans for the 6 week vacation that we have is just to sleep and eat and try to recuperate from an insane contract, but we do have some more interesting plans as well. We’re going to visit Ireland because Niamh is half Irish and has family there. We’re going to visit Scotland because it sounds awesome and Niamh hasn’t even been there. If we have time and money we may take the train to Paris. Also some highlights in the UK are Big Ben, (which Niamh loves making fun of me for wanting to see) Stonehenge, the hop-on hop-off bus in London, and any other various things we want to do. Yesterday I had the pleasure of going on the Underground.

I just bought myself a new camera, the Nikon D700. I had my previous camera stolen on the Volendam and happily Holland America reimbursed me for it, so I get to upgrade now. The shipping in the UK is insanely fast because I just bought the camera yesterday and the guy sent me an email with the tracking information saying it is supposed to be delivered today before 1pm. I guess I’m going to have to start enjoying it very soon! 😀

My next ship is going to be the Ryndam. It’s kinda crazy how over 3 contracts I will have only been on 2 ships. Most people do 2 ships in their first contract. Well I wouldn’t say most but a large majority of people get transferred at least a couple times and I have yet to have that happen in the middle of a contract. I will join the Ryndam in Tampa and do 2 or 3 cruises down there before the ship relocates to Europe where I will spend the rest of the contract. It’s going to be doing a lot of cruises in Norway, going up extremely north. I guess it’s gonna be even colder than Alaska there. We’re also going to go to England, The Netherlands, Germany, Russia, Denmark, Spain, Portugal, Morocco, France, Italy and quite a few other places. As you might tell I’m VERY excited about this next contract. I hear it’s a struggle as far as making money goes, but I’m not really in it for the money this time around, I wanna see Europe!

Posted on February 3, 2012 in Australia 2011, Cruise Life 6 Comments

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